Valentina Shevchenko discusses possible future rematch with Joanna Jedrzejczyk

Last weekend, in the co-main event of UFC 232, Valentina Shevchenko captured the vacant UFC women’s flyweight title with a dominant decision defeat of former UFC strawweight Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

Speaking on The MMA Hour with Luke Thomas on Monday, the new champion broke down this victory.

“I know Joanna, she is a very strong athlete,” Shevchenko said (transcript via MMA Fighting). “She is a very strong fighter, she does her takedown defense very good because for every fight we see before she was doing it doing it with success I felt like for my part I didn’t want to lose more power just holding her when I can use it like striking or using my power for striking for for kicking or whatever. Of course if I go by some kind of scenario when the limits change I just change my game plan for this moment.”

Valentina Shevchenko also opened up on how good it feels to finally have UFC gold wrapped around her waist.

“This win is meaning for me so much,” she said. “All the years I was in martial arts and now competing for the best organization of mixed martial arts in the world and win the belt it’s meant for me to be on the top and this is where I wanted to be all the time, and this is what my goal for the last couple of years and here I am and for me it was just the beginning.”

From here, Valentina Shevchenko can look forward to her first title defense. While she says she is open to pretty much anything, she was dismissive of a potential rematch with Joanna Jedrzejczyk — for now. She believes Jedrzejczyk is likely better suited for the strawweight division at present. 

“I don’t know,” Shevchenko said. “Just go and I will fight you. I tell everyone, I am real fighter I will fight everyone doesn’t matter who and it doesn’t matter where. I’m ready.”

“For now, we have so many opponents to fight with,” she added. “For me, I have much more goals for defending the title, and Joanna, she has more business in strawweight, so I think for now we are good to go and move forward.”

Who do you want to see Valentina Shevchenko fight next?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 12/11/2018.